Winning the war on spartina
Volunteers get a grip on nasty marsh grass
ANACORTES - Gingerly squatting next to a small, orange flag stuck in the soupy mud flat behind Northern Lights Casino, People for Puget Sound biologist Keeley O'Connell manhandles a shoot of grass that she has marked for death.
"One of the ways you can tell that it's spartina is they break off the stem at a perfect 45-degree angle," says O'Connell, bending the shoot's rigid leaf.
The grass O'Connell holds is spartina, an invasive weed that would overtake Skagit County's fragile tidelands if not for the labors of the state, tribes and advocacy organizations.
The northern Puget Sound, particularly Skagit County, has enjoyed some victories lately in the fight against spartina. Since the work to eradicate spartina began in earnest about seven years ago, about two-thirds of the spartina infecting tidelands has been removed.
There's still work for the public to do, however, as Skagit Dig Day organizers hasten to point out. The all-day dig, which starts at 9 a.m. Saturday behind the Northern Lights Casino, is one part of the continuing fight against spartina.
During the dig, crews of volunteers will sweep the half-moon bay's edge, uprooting the spartina sprouts and clones, O'Connell said.
Carelessness brought spartina to the Puget Sound in the 1960s, when the grass was planted along an eroding slough. Since then, spartina has spread throughout the sound, dislodging native species and changing the nature of some tidal ecosystems.
Spartina flourishes in most tidal ecosystems, especially mud flats and salt marshes. It grows in clumps that eventually become rolling hillocks as sand and mud is trapped in the roots. Once the grass has built up the mud flat or filled in a marsh, little can be done about the damage.
The weed is particularly nasty because it reproduces both by spreading seeds and by producing clones, replicas that spring up from the original plant's root system and take on a life of their own.
Continue reading this story from the Skagit Valley Herald:
Winning the war on spartina
To learn more about People for Puget Sound's Sound Stewardship Program, please visit their website.
